Will Windows Mango Change The Smartphone Market?
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Will Windows Mango Change The Smartphone Market?
Fremont: Some months ago, Microsoft had launched Windows Phone 7 into a crowded phone market, where phones were just becoming application launchers. The Mango is on a mission to redefine smartphones. Mango is an outcome of a two-part strategy: Putting the customer at the center and not the OS, which would be achieved with a new user interface-less clutter, more clarity; and a new approach to the ecosystem, which includes the hardware, the software and the services, which will provide a rich platform, balancing the performance and battery life. The Mango will heavily focus on an integrated experience, through all the native apps like contacts, web browsing as well as web searching and multi-tasking. There are rumored to be around 500 new features in Mango, which include adding Twitter and LinkedIn to the list of integrated services, ability to create contacts group, using the exactly same version of Internet Explorer 9 as on the desktop, "App Connect" which uses app shortcuts to connect searches directly to the application, and many more. Microsoft has already released Mango tools for app developers, but the upgrade won't be available soon. The recent announcement by mobile manufacturer HTC, about the launch of two new Windows Phone devices equipped with Mango has created a lot of attention in the mobile world. With the never-ending war between Google's Android and Apple's App store, Microsoft's new OS might change the rules of the game, and improve the experience for the users. As Microsoft gears for the launch of its Mango devices, it has key challenges ahead of it, namely Google's expected launch of its Android OS-Ice Cream Sandwich, and Apple coming up with iPhone 5. The most trumpeted feature of Mango is multitasking, something that its rivals have already mastered. Apple has already grabbed the limelight by announcing the launch of its iOS 5, set to become available to customers this September. Google has its own set of problems, especially when it comes to fragmentation (unlike Apple customers who get the updates as soon as the company launches them, Google's updates significantly longer to reach the customers). A survey from the comparison site priceGrabber found that Apple's "anticipation and brand loyalty are certainly high", with 48 percent of respondents saying that they prefer iOS, compared to 19 percent choosing Android, and only 7 percent going for Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform. Only time can tell if the Mango will be able to gather more customers for Microsoft, and that new features are able to win the hearts of mobile users across the globe.

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